Kathleen Schlesinger and Elsie Hamilton - Pioneers of ... - Naked Light

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Historical and Metaphysical contextBlavatsky is a controversial figure. Her philosophy took many elements fromthe Indian traditions, notably Vedanta (the philosophy of the Upanishads) andintegrated them into a wider system that saw all religious paths leadingultimately to the same end. She also took on board the historical perspectiveof Vedanta, namely the concept of ages. In Indian philosophy these areimmense timespans of man’s evolution representing only moments in a day ofthe creator god Brahma. Into this timescale Blavatsky, in her syncreticmanner, weaves other narratives including the legendary civilisations ofAtlantis and Lemuria and material she gleaned from channelled entities andpsychic investigation.Theosophy has been part of the world view of many internationally renownedartists such as the painters Kandinsky and Roerich, the composers Scriabinand Dane Rudhyar.Steiner broke with Theosophy when Blavatsky’s heir, Annie Besant declaredKrishnamurti to be the second coming of Christ (a claim which Krishnamurtilater repudiated).Steiner’s philosophy, known as Anthroposophy, although mystical, was morerooted in Christianity and the scientific theories of Goethe. What it kepthowever, among other things, was the Theosophical concept of time and theidea that we are living in the post-Atlantean age (the time since the legendarycontinent of Atlantis sank beneath the waves). Steiner further developed ideasof the relationship between these ages and the evolution of humanconsciousness.This is the philosophical background to the thinking of both Schlesinger andHamilton. From reading Schlesinger’s work, my impression is that her searchwas for this Urstimmung. This she thought she had found in themeasurements of flutes from various cultures. The analysis of thesemeasurements led her to construct her system of Harmoniai. This system shethen overlaid with philosophical and mystical concepts from Anthroposophysuch as the association of each mode with a particular planetary energy in theastrological sense.Inevitably her theories came under criticism from other academics. EvenDane Rudhyar, no mean mystic himself, asserts that Schlesinger “totallymisunderstood the early development of music.” (The Magic of Tone and theArt of Music. Dane Rudhyar. Shambhalla Publications. Boulder CO. 1982)According to American musicologist, John Chalmers “Although Schlesinger'stheories are considered incorrect by most scholars of classical Greek music,her scales form a fascinating musical system in their own right.”
For me, however, as a composer working with non-standard tuning systems, Ifind Schlesinger’s system the most satisfying and useful. There is an internalconsistency and mathematical rigour and elegance that I like. In addition, it iseasy to explain to musicians and non-musicians alike.In my own research I have expanded the idea of Modal Determinants (MDs)to higher numbers so that lower MDs become subsets of those higher. I havehowever stayed within the prime limit of 13 used by KS and EH because Icannot feel the quality of higher prime numbers such as 17 or 19. I don’t gettheir sense of identity.What counts in musicThis raises a major point and links us back to Steiner’s work on Goethe’sscientific theories. For Goethe and for Steiner, western science has made themistake of concentrating solely on quantitative aspects (that which can bemeasured) and ignoring quality.Albert Einstein had a sign hanging in his office at Princeton that read: “Noteverything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can becounted counts.”But number is more than just a system of counting things. To a Jungiananalyst, numbers are archetypes with symbolic associations. To thesynaesthete, numbers are identities with their own individual qualities: tastes,textures, smells and personalities. But synaesthesia is in fact a continuum;something we all partake of to a greater or less extent. The ability to perceivethe emotive, textural, sensory etc quality of number is not restricted to an oddfew.Through working with tunings, many people have come to this sense ofvibrations as identities. Partch talks of odentities and udentities. AlainDaniélou (Music and the Power of Sound: The Influence of Tuning andInterval on Consciousness. Inner Traditions International 1965) talks of themetaphysical qualities and effect on consciousness of different primenumbers.This right-brained way of appreciating number is fundamental to the way ofworking with tunings and is the complete antithesis of Schoenberg’s twelvetone system. As Lou Harrison puts it in in his Music Primer of 1970, “Thus, he[Schoenberg] substituted an order of succession for a hierarchy ofrelationships.”It is the Cartesian paradigm of the split between the observer and theobserved (based on the thinking of Aristotle) that has taken us out ofrelationship to nature. Nature has become a thing out there, an “it”, somethingwe are not a part of. This dualistic thinking has led to our delusion of
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Kathleen Schlesinger and Elsie Hamilton - Pioneers of ... - Naked Light

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